Hearts Without Chains

40.

~Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness~ Kurt Vonnegut

Harry-

After the intimate moment shared with Joey that in no way soothed the ache in my chest at leaving her, I watch as she continues to pack up my rolled shirts. I scoot my ass back so I can lean against the wall my bed is pushed against right beside her, resting my forearms on my knees. I know I am staring at Joey all the while she's doing this, but when she catches me looking she doesn't even seem to mind. She smiles a little, and I can tell she is biting the inside of her cheek as she looks away with slightly pink cheeks. Joey picks up the last rolled up black Tshirt from my bed, about to put it in the suitcase when I clear my throat.

"Hey, keep it." I say aloud what had popped into my mind. I want her to have it, to have something of mine.

"What?" Joey asks.

"Keep that one." I nod down to the black shirt in her hands.

Her hands fiddle with the material of it until she rests it into her lap, uttering a soft okay before sealing the zipper closed on my suitcase. When I see her pull out her phone from her back pocket I know she is looking at the time, something I've refused to do all morning. Our eyes meet and when I raise my eyebrows she lets out a soft sigh, knowing what I want to know just by body language.

"Three hours." She tells me, her voice small.

When silence overtakes us I know we can't spend the last amount of time we have together in this way.

"Okay, three hours for me to take you somewhere then." I say, already getting off my bed.

"O-okay." She stutters in surprise, and I can't explain the feeling that takes over me at all the memories that flood my mind of her sitting desks in front of me in Mr. Harbors history classroom, being her beautiful self that I always tried to deny.

When she is stood in front of me I can't control the hot kiss that I plant against her mouth. "Where are you taking me?" She asks against my lips, my hands on her hips, her feet stretched onto her tippy toes.

"Where do you think?" I reply, making a sly smile approach her lips, giving me signs of happiness.

"I want us to be happy right now, okay? We don't have time to be sad." Her hands plant against my chest, almost squished between us due to our close proximity.

"Alright." I answer, letting the smile that had been pushed down so far for the day appear.

"Now." I start.

"Let's go." I tell her.

She nods her head, and the bottom edge of her squared glasses pokes my nose. With other people, that would be awkward as hell, but with us two, we just laugh. I create a few inches of space between our faces, and when I let out a puff of warm air onto her glasses lenses, she instantly pushes me away halfheartedly as they fog up.

"You're so weird!" She tells me disapprovingly, while I can't contain the laughs I release, making her smile all the more.

She is cleaning her glasses off on her shirt, and when my hands run down the sides of her face, her somehow naked looking eyes meet mine. And I memorize those brown eyes, such a simple color, but so much depth.

"Don't we have to unmake your bed?" She asks me.

A cheeky thought enters my mind and I once again say it aloud, "I know a way we can do that." I tell her, grabbing her hips to spin us around towards the bed in a playful manner.